Monday, July 9, 2012

Assessing Math With A Smartboard


Math time is a busy time in our class. The Smartboard brings my students together to solve problems and support each other as they tackle new concepts. They are always eager to get to work and the best part is that even if they are not up using the board, they are actively figuring out what they would answer to be ready for their chance. A big plus is that as they work I can see what they are thinking.






                          Decimals as a team sport. Simply order them from largest to smallest.


This allows me to alter my teaching to address the misunderstandings of the students. For example, when we were working on place value, one question I gave the class stumped them all. Their job was to write  1, 416, 098   from the digits that were in a place value chart on the Smartboard.  Every student came up one at a time, and one at a time they were stumped. This amazed me because I thought they had a good understanding of the concept. They were able to take the numbers from the chart and write them out in the correct order1416098. However, the problem came when they tried to put in the commas and read the number. After watching them come up one after one, it soon became apparent what the problem was. They all started from the left side of the number and counted out three digits and placed the first comma. resulting in 141, 609, 8????  Of course it was all down hill from there. Some tried to drop out the zero and others tried adding some extra ones in various spots.  However, no one thought of starting from the right. I guess that we are so ingrained to read left to right that the idea of starting from the right never occurred to them. We tried for about fifteen minutes until recess. They all headed out with the problem still unsolved. After the recess I set them groups to find a solution and the puzzle was eventually solved.


And..
http://bit.ly/LALk
Who knew Multiplication drills could be could be so much fun! Just a simple set of interactive buttons and the game is on! My students love these two big, noisy buttons. We use them for team math sports. They capture the first person's touch, light up, make a sound and count down. We use them for math drills amongst other games. They are always asking for a chance to use this.










Another resource from this website is a function machine.We use this as teams as well. One student makes up the function while the other solves it.








Using the Smartboard has challenged me as a teacher, and my students as a class, to develop a deeper understanding of math concepts.  It provides me with  opportunities to use observation as a pivotal part of assessing their learning, and helps me to tailor my teaching to student needs.



These resources are from TeacherLed   http://bit.ly/OwnCHv.